Securing Your Dentures in Place with Dental Implants

January 28, 2014

Wouldn’t it be nice if your dentures could always stay firmly in place even without denture adhesives? Wouldn’t it be much better if you’ll never have to worry again about your dentures slipping or falling off when you ate, spoke or laughed? Now it’s possible with implant-retained dentures, available at Kennewick dentist Dr. Walter Hadley’s Marineland Dental Care clinic in Washington.

Implant-supported dentures are overdentures attached to implants which are then placed into your jawbone, as opposed to regular dentures which just rest on the gums. Nevertheless, routine cleaning and maintenance of implant-supported dentures is more or less the same as that for regular removable dentures.

You can choose between bar-retained or ball-retained dentures, with the former consisting of a thin metal bar that follows the curve of your jaw attached to the implants, while the latter consists of ball-shaped studs attached to the implants that fit into sockets located on the denture. The implants serve as artificial tooth roots that hold the dentures securely in place.

Dr. Hadley will first review your dental history, perform an X-ray and CT scan, and take impressions of your teeth and gums before beginning any work on your implant-supported dentures. The CT scan will be able to tell how much bone is available and where within the jawbone would be the best position to put the implants, to ensure that they don’t hit the sinuses and nerves.

Once the location for the implants is determined, an incision will be made in the gums and a hole will be drilled in the bone where the implant will be placed. This procedure can be completed in one appointment but the period of waiting for the implants to integrate with the bone may take 3 to 6 months, depending on whether they were placed in the lower or upper jaw.